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One Dennison label box containing unidentified white powder, and five safety pins.

One small wooden cylinder (pencil lead holder) containing three wooden matches each tightly wrapped with small needle and tan thread.

One small bar green soap.

I should like, at this time, to express my appreciation to you for the assistance rendered Special Agents HARTLEY and CROW during the investigation of this matter.

Very truly yours,

N. J. L. PIEPER

Special Agent in Charge

Over the course of nearly ten years, Giles had acquired more than forty smuggled articles ranging from clothing to dog tags. Giles was punished harshly and he would remain in segregation for nearly three years. In 1948, he was integrated back into the general population and assigned the incinerator detail; considered one of the island’s toughest work assignments. He was eventually transferred to Leavenworth and paroled several years later. Upon his release, Giles moved to Los Angeles to live with his brother and never returned to prison. John Giles died in February of 1979 at age eighty-four.

ESCAPE ATTEMPT #10

Date:

May 2-6, 1946

Inmates:

Bernard Coy

Joseph Cretzer

Marvin Hubbard

Miran Thompson

Clarence Carnes

Sam Shockley

Location:

Main Cellhouse

THE BATTLE OF ALCATRAZ

A message scratched onto one of the flat bars of cell #23 in A Block, where several inmates were temporarily housed during the “Battle of Alcatraz.”

On May 2, 1946, six convicts embarked on one of the most violent escape attempts ever made on the Rock. Many historians rank this as the most significant event in the island’s twenty-nine-year history as a Federal penitentiary, and it was appropriately labeled by the contemporary press as the “Battle of Alcatraz.” Of the thirty-nine convicts who attempted to escape over the years, only one successfully plotted and executed a plan to secure weapons – and they were used with deadly consequences. In the wake of the conflict, two correctional officers and three inmates lay dead from bullet wounds and several others were left seriously injured. This legendary escape attempt would remain a topic of discussion by inmates and guards alike until the prison’s closure in 1963.

THE CONSPIRATORS

Bernard Paul Coy

Bernard Paul Coy was the primary architect of one of the most ingenious escape plots ever implemented at Alcatraz. He would be the only inmate in the prison’s history to successfully secure prison firearms.

Forty-six-year-old Bernard Paul Coy was a hillbilly bank robber serving out the remainder of a twenty-five-year sentence on The Rock. Bernie was born to a hauntingly poor Kentucky hill family of one brother and four sisters, all of whom suffered the consequences of extreme poverty. By the time Bernie reached his late teens, his teeth were horribly decayed and he was afflicted with excruciatingly painful gums. It was rumored that Coy had been neglected as a child and had received frequent beatings from his father. Even in his earliest years, Coy had allegedly exhibited violent tendencies.

At sixteen years of age, Bernie decided to leave home and enlist in the U.S. Army. It was in this context that he would enter into his first battle: World War I. Coy served in the Army with great distinction until the war ended in 1918. After finishing his tour of duty, he fell in love with a woman from Wisconsin and the couple soon married. In order to maintain a steady income, Bernie reenlisted in the Army in 1920. As the war effort came to a close, Coy frequently found himself in trouble and it was during this period that he changed the direction of his life, and began moving toward his eventual destiny. In 1921, Bernie was arraigned in Chicago for abandoning his post assignment and going AWOL. He was found guilty of desertion and was sent back to Camp Taylor in Kentucky, where he served fifteen days in the military detention center. Soon afterward, he received a dishonorable discharge and therefore had to make the transition